Video: Watch Ryan Reynolds recording the character Turbo

Watch Ryan Reynolds behind the microphone recording the voice for his role in
the DreamWorks Animation film, Turbo, the 200mph snail.

7:00AM BST 12 Oct 2013

Watch Ryan Reynolds behind the microphone recording the voice for his role in the DreamWorks Animation film, Turbo, the 200mph snail.

Turbo is the ‘ultimate underdog story’ of a snail called Theo who dreams of going fast. By day he works with all the other snails in the tomato ‘plant’ in the garden, sorting and eating the tomatoes. But by night he watches videos of IndyCar races in the garage and trains tirelessly to try to improve his own speed, measuring his progress with a ruler (his record is 36 inches in 17 minutes).

After a reckless attempt at racing a lawnmower nearly costs him his life, Theo is ostracised by the snail community. He decides to leave, and eventually ends up perched on a motorway bridge, watching cars speed past below. Caught up in the excitement, he leans forward, falls off the bridge and is sucked into the engine of a sports car. As the driver floods the engine with nitrous oxide, Theo’s entire body becomes infused with the chemicals, which alter his DNA. Once he is spat out he discovers that he can zoom around at 200mph. He races back home, but finds that his snail friends, including his (very cautious) brother, Chet, don’t appreciate his new talents. Fate then intervenes when Chet is plucked out of the plant by a crow and taken to the other side of LA. Theo gives chase and rescues his brother. The pair are then picked up by a taco vendor called Tito, who, it transpires, has his own dreams too (in his spare time he races snails). Having witnessed Theo’s incredible speed, he renames him Turbo and enters him in the Indy500.

‘Turbo’s defining characteristic is that he doesn’t ever want to give up,’ Reynolds says. ‘His dream is ludicrous and yet he continues to make it happen. The stroke of luck Turbo has in acquiring his super speed isn’t the solution to his problems, and it’s not what makes Turbo, Turbo. It’s his persistence.’